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(Telegraph) – HOUSE OF COMMONS authorities were accused of a “cosy stitch up” last night after it emerged that full details of MPs’ expenses claims will not be published until after the general election.

Many MPs had feared that the totals claimed for items including travel, office costs, communications and staff for 2008-09 would be published before polling day, expected to be on 6 May.

It can be revealed, however, that the figures will not be brought out until June, well after the election, meaning voters will not have the chance to assess their MPs’ most recent records in full before making their choice.

The Fees Office – the body criticised for its role in last year’s expenses scandal uncovered by The Telegraph – last week sent each MP the total amounts it proposes to publish for each individual.

MPs then have until 26 April to check the figures and confirm they are accurate.

However, instead of publishing the totals immediately, voters will have to wait at least six further weeks before they see them.

Last night a source close to the Members Estimate Committee, the group of senior MPs with overall control over the allowances system, defended the decision to wait until June before revealing the totals.

The source cited the “huge amount of work” needed to process the tens of thousands of claims by Commons officials and said the previous year’s figures, for 2007-08, had also been brought out in June.

However, campaigners said Commons authorities could easily have speeded up the process this year and said voters had a right to know before polling day.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This sounds like a typically cosy stitch up by the parliamentary authorities. They should be much more open and transparent with the public.

“There remains a great deal of disquiet over expenses and this shows MPs have not learnt the lessons from what has happened.

“Voters have the right to know the full details about their representatives’ allowances and expenses before casting their vote.”

One of the most controversial sets of allowance claims, for MPs’ second homes for 2008-09, was published last year. This has now been abolished, however, in reforms brought in in the wake of the scandal.

This week will see the publication of the final version of the new rules which MPs will have to abide by after the election.

It follows a wide-ranging consultation by the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, chaired by Sir Ian Kennedy.

Under draft proposals last year, MPs would in future only be able to claim rent for second homes outside London, not mortgage repayments.

They would have to provide receipts before any repayments were made and no future claims would be permitted for furnishings or food.

Payouts worth up to £65,000 to MPs who step down are also under threat, as is the communications allowance.

IPSA could also rule this week on whether MPs will continue to be allowed to employ family members, and whether they will be allowed to keep the profits on the sale of their taxpayer-funded second homes, or return them to public funds.

Earlier this month The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that MPs have demanded the right to first-class rail travel because they say they need to be able to work during journeys to and from Westminster.

The pleas were recorded in nearly 50 submissions made by MPs to IPSA’s consultation.

Sir Ian has proposed that they should only be allowed to travel first class in “exceptional circumstances” such as a journey of more than two and a half hours.